None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933-1948Winner of the National Jewish Book Award (Holocaust Category) Winner of the Canadian Historical Association John A. Macdonald Prize Featured in The Literary Review of Canada 100: Canada’s Most Important Books [This] is a story best summed up in the words of an anonymous senior Canadian official who, in the midst of a rambling, off-the-record discussion with journalists in 1945, was asked how many Jews would be allowed into Canada after the war … ‘None,’ he said, ‘is too many.’ From the Preface One of the most significant studies of Canadian history ever written, None Is Too Many conclusively lays to rest the comfortable notion that Canada has always been an accepting and welcoming society. Detailing the country’s refusal to offer aid, let alone sanctuary, to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution between 1933 and 1948, it is an immensely bleak and discomfiting story – and one that was largely unknown before the book’s publication. Irving Abella and Harold Troper’s retelling of this episode is a harrowing read not easily forgotten: its power is such that, ‘a manuscript copy helped convince Ron Atkey, Minister of Employment and Immigration in Joe Clark’s government, to grant 50,000 “boat people” asylum in Canada in 1979, during the Southeast Asian refugee crisis’ (Robin Roger, The Literary Review of Canada). None Is Too Many will undoubtedly continue to serve as a potent reminder of the fragility of tolerance, even in a country where it is held as one of our highest values. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - BradKautz - LibraryThingNone is Too Many is the story of Jewish immigration to Canada during the years of 1933 to 1948, from roughly the time of ascendance of the Nazi party in Germany until the British abandoned the ... Read full review
Very well researched, and a moving book to touch one's heart, to learn about the tragic and unbelievable episode in history of the Jews and how almost everybody empathized with them, but hardly anybody helped them get out of this mess. Glad to know Canada's role during that period of time, of how it was no different than anybody else, herein the comments of Mark Sorensen are worth noting. Overall, it is a must read for all concerned with humanity and especially Canadians, to know its part played during that time.
Contents
The Line Must Be Drawn Somewhere | |
Der Feter Yiuv ist biei | |
Ottawa or Bermuda? A Refugee Conference | |
In the Free and Civilized World | |
Other editions - View all
None is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933-1948 Irving Abella,Harold Martin Troper Limited preview - 2012 |
None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933-1948 Irving Abella,Harold Troper Limited preview - 2017 |